IndustryGamers - Informing the Games Industry

Nintendo to Garage Devs: Go Get Some Experience, Then We'll Talk

Posted March 28, 2011 by James Brightman

Following comments he made recently about Nintendo's reluctance to work with garage developers, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime has further elaborated that there's a difference between someone who has a great game idea and a developer that actually has real experience making hit titles. Nintendo doesn't have any problem working with indies, so long as they have had some experience first.

"We've been clear that we want to work with independent developers who understand this business, who have experience in this business," Fils-Aime said to Joystiq. "These are people who spent time working with larger publishers and larger developers, but had that idea in the back of their head that they needed to bring to life ... and so that's the type of entity that we want to work with."

"These are talented developers. That's different from the person who envisions themselves as a developer, but actually hasn't necessarily created anything, who doesn't necessarily understand what it takes in this business to create compelling content. That's where we draw the line. I'll tell you, if someone calls us tomorrow who has no experience in the gaming industry, but has a passion and has a great idea, our perspective would be, 'Great, but get some experience. Understand your craft, and then come back to us,'" Fils-Aime said.

James Brightman has been covering the games industry since 2003 and has been an avid gamer ever since the days of Atari and Intellivision. He was previously the EIC of GameDaily Biz.